James Weldon Johnson's career was one of extraordinary range, spanning
the worlds of diplomacy (as U.S. consul in Venezuela and Nicaragua),
politics (as Secretary of the NAACP), journalism (as founder of one
newspaper and longtime editor of another), musical theater (as lyricist
for the Broadway songwriting team of Cole and Johnson Brothers), and
literature (as novelist, poet, and anthologist). At the dawning of what
would become the modern civil rights movement, he forged a record of
accomplishment that defied the odds. The Library of America now presents
a collection of his writings that displays the many facets of a complex
and impassioned writer.
The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912), Johnson's first book,
is a novel that on its original anonymous publication was taken by many
for an actual memoir. A groundbreaking work of modern fiction, it
powerfully describes the inner development of a gifted, socially
alienated man as he tries to come to terms with the constraints of
racism.
Along This Way (1933) is Johnson's genial and enthralling account of
his fantastically busy life, with a cast of characters including W.E.B.
Du Bois, Paul Robeson, Clarence Darrow, Booker T. Washington, Theodore
Roosevelt, Carl Van Vechten, and many others.
A selection of shorter prose--editorials from The New York Age,
political essays, literary prefaces, an excerpt from the historical
study Black Manhattan--confirms the variety of Johnson's interests, as
he comments on figures and topics including Jack Johnson, Marcus Garvey,
Woodrow Wilson, lynching, anti-Japanese discrimination in California,
American involvement in Haiti, changing trends in theater and poetry,
and the significance of spirituals.
Johnson's poetry is represented by the full text of God's Trombones
(1927), his stirring homage to African-American preaching, and shorter
works including "O Black and Unknown Bards," lyrics from Johnson's
Broadway songwriting days, and "Lift Every Voice and Sing," the hymn
often referred to as the "Negro National Anthem."
LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization
founded in 1979 to preserve our nation's literary heritage by
publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America's best and most
significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than
300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in
length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are
printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.
